Modern chip manufacturing technologies allow comparably high carrier frequencies in wired and wireless communication systems to achieve data rates in rage of several gigabits per second. One promising data transmission technology is based on propagation of millimeter waves through plastic waveguides. Similar to fibers used for optical data transmission, plastic fibers may provide a low-loss transmission channel for millimeter waves, i.e. radio frequency (RF) signals in the range of approximately 100 to 200 GHz (corresponds to a wavelength of approximately 1.5 to 3 mm). Different from optical data transmissions systems, transmission systems using millimeter waves allow, however, more complex signal modulation schemes such as, for example, phase shift keying (PSK), frequency shift keying (FSK), quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), etc. AS the electromagnetic wave is confined to the dielectric waveguide, signal loss due to wave propagation in free space is eliminated, which results in a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver. Moreover, RF waveguides may be made of comparably cheap plastic materials such as polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) or polyethylene (PE). The RF transmitters and receivers may be manufactured in standard CMOS technology without the need for electro-optical converters (light emitting diodes and photo diodes).
A RF plastic waveguide link is composed of a transmitter chip, the dielectric waveguide, and the receiver chip. Alternatively, combined transmitter/receiver chips (transceiver chips) may be used. The respective antennas may be integrated in the chip or formed off-chip on a separate substrate. In many applications (e.g. in the automotive sector) reliable and easy-to-handle connectors for coupling antenna and waveguide are of paramount importance. Thus there is a general need for connectors suitable for the mentioned transmission technology using millimeter waves propagating through plastic waveguides.